Advanced fundamental modeling of the kinetics of Fischer–Tropsch synthesis

Abstract

The kinetic modeling of Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis on an iron catalyst starting from experimental data collected in a spinning basket reactor and proceeding through the Single Event approach to limit the number of independent parameters is reported. The elementary steps are based on the carbide mechanism with hydrogen assisted CO insertion and CH2 as the growth monomer. The evolution with the chain length of alkane‐, alkene‐, and alcohol‐selectivities in the synthesis product and their exponential‐like behavior is fundamentally generated by accounting for the effect of the structure of reactants and transition state intermediates on the rate coefficients. The olefin readsorption is included in the model but its influence on the product distribution is found to be negligible. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 62: 1668–1682, 2016